CHILLICOTHE — Over the course of last week’s Division III, Region 11 softball tournament, the defending state champion Wheelersburg Lady Pirates proved themselves as a worthy representative of Region 11 at the D-III state tournament once again.

In two games of regional play, ‘Burg scored 25 runs on 29 hits and two victories — including a 13-0 win over South Webster in Friday’s Region 11 final at Unioto High School.

In their regional championship win over the all too familiar Lady Jeeps, five different Lady Pirates had multi-hit days, including senior Macee Eaton, junior Rileigh Lang and freshman Ava Estep who had three hits apiece, and juniors Haley Myers and AndiJo Howard, who finished with two hits each.

“It’s extremely exciting. We practice for this all year long, after state last year we were right back at it,” Howard said, after the game. “It takes an entire team, every position player and everyone on our bench. When everyone works hard, this is what happens.”

“One through nine, we’re very solid. It’s hard to get us out,” Myers said. “If we play our game, I feel like it’s going to be hard for anyone to beat us.”

After two runs in their first trip to the plate in the first inning, Wheelersburg scored six runs in the second — all with two outs.

In the third, five Lady Pirate runs scored before an out was recorded by South Webster.

“It’s huge anytime you can be productive in the bottom of your lineup, you’re more apt to have big innings,” Wheelersburg coach Teresa Ruby said. “I’ll brag on Rileigh Lang in the nine spot. She bats nine for us, but would be leadoff for most teams. Has had a tremendous year and got us going with that two-out rally in the second. Thought it was important for us to get on the board early having been here.”

South Webster had two hits on the day, and were held scoreless by Howard and the Lady Pirate defense.

Juniors Skylar Zimmerman and Ashlee Spence both reached via hit for the Lady Jeeps.

“You can’t make a mistake against them, I know that,” South Webster coach Andy Messer said. “They’re a very good hitting team and they’re hard to pitch around, have a lot of depth. It can be exhausting to face a lineup that good with their good hitters.”

Friday’s meeting in the Region 11 final was ‘Burg and South Webster’s third meeting of the 2023 season — all going the way of the defending state champs by a combined 38-1 margin.

“It was a familiar opponent, so we knew what to expect,” Ruby said. “Quick turnaround. But the good thing about it was we felt there was a lot of similarities between the pitcher we saw with Meadowbrook and who we saw today. The kids were just dialed in. I kept waiting for it to happen, because I felt we hit just good enough, but not what we know they can do. The bats started to come alive.”

Estep scored a team-high three runs for Wheelersburg.

Although the Lady Pirate program is returning to the D-III state tournament for the third-straight year, Estep and her fellow freshmen will be making their first trip to Akron as members of the varsity program.

“It’s amazing,” Estep said. “Being a freshman at Wheelersburg, it’s very different. You just have to keep your head up, be the one to set the tone and keep on going.

South Webster, coming off their third regional final appearance in school history and back-to-back district championships, expects another outstanding year next year.

None of the Lady Jeeps’ ‘23 team members are seniors, meaning they’ll return a group with a bevy of experience next spring.

“Proud of the girls for their achievements. It’s somewhere the program’s has been twice before, but none of them had,” Messer said. “They worked their butts off. Great group of girls who come out for their love of the sport. We know what our lineup is from this year, don’t lose anybody. We can go straight out of the gate and gives us an advantage going into next season.”

Wheelersburg will face South Range on Thursday (June 1) at 12:30 p.m. at Akron’s Firestone Stadium in the Division III state semifinals.

The winner of Wheelersburg-South Range will face the winner of Johnstown-Lewistown Indian Lake in the D-III state championship game on Saturday, June 3 at 10 a.m.

“I think this year is about the toughest D-III state tournament; there’s going to be some good teams there,” Ruby said. “I feel like we’ve put the work in during the season, seen a lot of good teams and good pitching. We’ll see what happens.”

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BOX SCORE

South Webster 000 00 — 0 2 0

Wheelersburg 265 0X — 13 15 1

W: AndiJo Howard (W) 5IP, 2H, 0ER, 0BB, 4K; L: Jaiden White (SW) 4IP, 15H, 13ER, 1BB, 0K

South Webster hitting

Skylar Zimmerman 1-2

Ashlee Spence 1-2

Wheelersburg hitting

Ava Estep 3-4, 3R, 2RBI

Haley Myers 2-3, 4RBI

Macee Eaton 3-3, 2R, RBI

Catie Boggs 1-2, R, 2RBI

AndiJo Howard 2-3, R, 4RBI, HR

Kaylynn Carter 1-3, R

Emma Smith 0-1, R, BB

Mylee Gleim 0-1, 2R

Rileigh Lang 3-3, 2R

Reach Jacob Smith at (740) 370-0713 ext. 1930, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @JacobSmithPDT © 2023 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved